Terrorism vandalism

At the risk of overdoing things, I share my thoughts on terrorism.

Apparently (though I don't want to add to the jump-the-gun hysteria) that Army doctor is guilty of killing 13 at Fort Hood. And according to some witnesses, he shouted a Muslim slogan as he began his attack.

I began wondering about terrorism just after the September 11 attacks, and I asked myself just what they were attempting to prove. Classic warfare, for example the US attacking German positions during WWII, focuses on taking out military targets to achieve military objectives. We blow up bridges so troops and equipment can't come to fight us. More recently, and more problematically, we use rocket attacks to attempt to kill the leaders of guerilla armies.

But what was the September 11 attack trying to achieve? What would the Army doctor's attack accomplish? Nearly 3000 people died on September 11, but there were certainly a lot of New Yorkers (and Americans) left. My internet connection faltered slightly because Web had a major hub in the World Trade Center. Discover Card gave a grace period of about a month to cardholders because so many records were screwed up. That's about it. The USA was nowhere near being brought to its knees. Fort Hood, one of the largest military installations in the world, has more than 33,000 people. Killing a couple of dozen, none of whom were exactly key to the operation, didn't cause a hiccup in the ongoing military operations.

The closest analogy I can come up with is schoolyard vandalism. To the twelve-year-old mind, the best response to a teacher who is giving a bad grade is to let the air out of her tires. That's certain to deal with the child's problem in spelling. And of course, it will deal a death blow to the entire educational enterprise and the child will have peace. Nope. And the child is probably smart enough not to claim credit for the tire vandalism because he knows he'll simply be sent to the office.

Yes, Muslims in the Middle East are victims of terrible privation, some of it at the hands of Israelis and Americans (and lots of it at the hands of fellow Muslims who differ only slightly in some theological fine point). And yes, the concept of tribal warfare is high on their list, so any member of their tribe has a right to kill any member of our tribe and it's somehow a fair transaction.

But ultimately, this bloodletting is about as reasonable as breaking the school's windows because the child can't learn the multiplication tables.